]]>http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/10/15/letters-to-an-absent-god/feed/0UlisesCLOCKinks002CLOCKinks003CLOCKinks004CLOCKinks005CLOCKinks006CLOCKinks007CLOCKinks008CLOCKinks009CLOCKinks010CLOCKinks011CLOCKinks012CLOCKinks013CLOCKinks014CLOCKinks015CLOCKinks016CLOCKinks017CLOCKinks018CLOCKinks019CLOCKinks020CLOCKinks021doodles001doodles002doodles003CLOCKissue2001aCLOCKissue2002aCLOCKissue2003aCLOCKissue2004aCLOCKissue2005aCLOCKissue2006aCLOCKissue2007aCLOCKissue2008aCLOCKissue2009aSlowing down to Smell the Roseshttp://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/07/14/slowing-down-to-smell-the-roses/
http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/07/14/slowing-down-to-smell-the-roses/#commentsMon, 14 Jul 2014 09:11:17 +0000http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/07/14/slowing-down-to-smell-the-roses/THE IDOL BOX:The last year of my life has been one of a lot of changes. Well, not changes, more like leveling up. I moved to a new city (Portland), distant friends became closer friends, and close friends became more distant.…]]>

The last year of my life has been one of a lot of changes. Well, not changes, more like leveling up. I moved to a new city (Portland), distant friends became closer friends, and close friends became more distant. As the song goes, “Love Changes and Thug Changes, and Best Friends become Strangers” Word up. I never have worked as much as i have worked this year, in a career of my own choosing. I got my own apartment, and i thought i’d be terrified of being alone, but that never happened. I became really angry at comics, angry at everyone who makes and likes comics, and then mostly got over it. I’m always terrified that my life will crash and burn, that my career will fall apart, that all my talking shit will come back to shit on my parade. So far, no shit storm. But it hasn’t, so…

]]>http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/07/14/slowing-down-to-smell-the-roses/feed/0Screen Shot 2014-04-17 at 12.08.17 PMUlisesIn my Dreams, I was an Engineerhttp://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/06/12/in-my-dreams-i-was-an-engineer/
http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/06/12/in-my-dreams-i-was-an-engineer/#commentsThu, 12 Jun 2014 08:17:34 +0000http://ulisesfarinas.com/?p=1463]]>When i was a little kid, i was crazy for those amazing cut away books. I would read them all, pour over the illustrations, and they really are a genius way of getting across how complex systems and machines are put together, and unraveling the mysteries of modern living. They also had books on Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, and old medieval castles and warships. Really, you could be a kid genius with those things. You still can, since they sell for cheap on Amazon.

Everyone always goes on about their favorite comic book artists, but this guy, he was it for me. Stephen Biesty, Wayne Douglas Barlowe, and Frank Asch, those were my prime movers. They put a seed in my head, that has grown into a vine that effects everything i do.

Stephen Biesty – best way to learn how anything works, is to take it apart and look inside.

One of the things i wanted to do when drawing Mega-City 2, is to absolutely define it. I didn’t want to just make a pastiche of other cities i’ve seen before, i didn’t want to do an uninspired by-the-numbers sci-fi metropolis, i wanted to build it from the ground up. I wanted to take things apart, and show you the insides. So in the final issue, i really wanted to stop the action, in the biggest action sequence of the comic, to just say “LOOK AT THIS”. So for an even closer look, here is a behind the scenes look from pencils to finished art, on the Titan Megatrain.

Colors by Ryan Hill

I had a lot of fun making up the various bits of techno-babble that helps the ship operate. You try to have every function be directly tied to some other function, imagining if one thing broke down how would it affect everything else. Everything has its purpose. If you’re wondering what the Blue Matter Diffuser Array is, I can tell you. Blue Matter are subatomic particles that are time displaced only a fraction of a nanosecond into the future. The Diffuser Array allows quantum entangled computers to measure the changes that the Blue Matter goes through in the future, and allows for limited predictive reactions. When disasters begin from the smallest of impacts, fractures, or mechanical failures, the Megatrain’s automated systems can prevent terrible accidents. As you can see above, none of this made it into the comic, but that’s the joy of making comics. Half your job is just making things up for fun.

The most difficult part of this drawing then was not coming up with the detail work, but deciding what not to show. Keeping the form of the entire structure readable, and not just a random collection of slices and chunks, was a challenge, because you want to show it all! This was probably the most detail heavy, and complex cutaway i’ve done, and its really just a straight up box. Compared to the wide variety of forms and volumes that Stephen Biesty, and other similar artists work with, when i was done i really appreciated the level of imagination, patience, and expertise that goes into these cut aways. In the end, I’m left feeling like the below image, but i hope you enjoyed Judge Dredd – Mega City 2, by Douglas Wolk and Ulises Farinas and Ryan Hill.

]]>http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/06/12/in-my-dreams-i-was-an-engineer/feed/0Screen Shot 2014-06-12 at 1.04.09 AMUlisesimageimage_2image_1image_3image_4image_5Colors by Ryan HillHow to draw Cars!http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/05/12/how-to-draw-cars/
http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/05/12/how-to-draw-cars/#commentsMon, 12 May 2014 20:30:12 +0000http://ulisesfarinas.com/?p=1452]]>Cars are really a pain to draw! But after having to draw a bunch of cars, trucks, trains, and bikes in JUDGE DREDD – MEGA CITY 2 (#5 comes out this weds!) I really got a handle on these beasts. Now i like drawing them.

Reference is absolutely necessary for drawing cars, because although they are simply buckets to transport humans in, there is a massive variety of lines, forms, shapes and details to vehicles, that you don’t even expect. Fortunately, you can buy dozens of toy cars for about a buck each, at any supermarket. Hotwheels leads the way!

The first thing to keep in mind with cars, is that the Driver and Passengers are all sitting in a nice squashed cube. The front and back of the vehicle, are simply attached to this cube. But all lines on the vehicle must align with this cube, that is the most difficult part. People are usually sitting in a lower position in a car, than in a standard chair, and when they are standing outside the car, they can almost always see the top of the vehicle.

So i begin by taking photos of the toy car that is closest to the design of the car i’m drawing. Judge Dredd’s vehicle is a mix between a Chevy Vega and a Dodge Daytona Charger:

You don’t want to just take one photo, because cars are always supposed to look in motion, and the first photo you take will always look very stilted and stuck. Take a number of photos of the toy cars, until you find the right shot. You won’t be tracing this shot exactly, you will be interpreting it. Also, the ‘crop’ function on an iphone is useful, for creating the exact panel dimensions you’ll be using.

When you begin drawing the cars, you start with drawing the squashed cubes that the characters sit in. Perspective rules are king here, and this is why you begin with the squashed cube. Cars are often hard to draw, because they are shaped like strange tetris blocks, which are moving against a static background, which throws the car’s vanishing points into opposition with the background’s vanishing points. But as long as you follow the perspective lines that you’ve set down with the cube, you will be okay. Having the toy car with you, will help you in keeping the proportions of the vehicle correct. Like a face with eyes, ears and nose, a car has wheels, windows and spoilers.

Above are some pencils i did for the Judge Dredd – Mega City 2 #5 cover, that i decided i hated, but its a good detail of the pencils for the car. Occasionally, you will find that you just can’t get some details of the car to mesh right, and you gotta fudge it. I just use motion lines to cover up any wonky spots on the car. Its an easy cheat. Once you got your car, nicely rendered in your pencils, you can begin inking, and this is where other motion flourishes and movement can be depicted. Wheels should stretch and lean a bit into turns, think of old school animation techniques.

And here are the finished inks and then colors by Ryan Hill for this car chase sequence in Judge Dredd – Mega City 2 #5, out this May 15.

First things first! PLAY WITH BLOCKS! I don’t need no fancy google sketchup, I’m oldschool. I just grab my trusty box of box and thigamajigs and start playing on the floor.

After i make a cool little city-scape, i lay on my belly and take pictures from all angles, and try to find a cool shot. This drawing went through about 8 rebuilds of the city, and then about 8 photos per build, til i found what i liked.

Then pencil! and ink! Get it doneeeee!

Then Ryan “Ray-Ray De Best Colorist in the Game” Hill “Shoulda been called Mountain” colors that bad boy, and Tom B. Long letters it!

And here are some more examples –

AND THAT IS HOW MOVIE (comics) MAGIC IS MADE! And if that doesnt convince you, let my alter ego yell at you WRESTLEMANIA STYLE

]]>http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/04/30/judge-dredd-4-detailed-anatomy/feed/0Screen Shot 2014-04-30 at 2.28.38 PMUlisesphoto 2photo 1JD#4inksScreen Shot 2014-04-30 at 2.28.38 PMphoto 1photo 2photo 3The Idol-Boxhttp://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/04/24/the-idol-box/
http://ulisesfarinas.com/2014/04/24/the-idol-box/#commentsThu, 24 Apr 2014 19:32:39 +0000http://ulisesfarinas.com/?p=1337]]>I’ve been writing a lot, all around the internet. On Think Faest, Mister Misses, and my Facebook (ha!) and i’ve decided to bring some method to my madness, so i created a website to contain all of my writing-focused projects. Check out the IDOL-BOX, it’s my new baby. Drawing comics is still my other baby, but a good parent doesn’t have a limit to their love.

That, above, is a Road Drone. It’s one of the strange creatures that keeps Mega-City Two going, and growing. The drawing of a giant mega city is a lot more than just drawing, before you put pen to paper, you try to imagine living there. What’s it smell like, what’s the temperature, how’s it sound and where’s everyone going? If a picture represents a thousand words, then you gotta try to think of a thousand words to draw. Douglas Wolk and I shared a lot of notes and ideas about MC2, and before i even drew this page, i was already throwing him concept art for machines we might never see. But finally, i had to begin:
I do not like perspective lines. I don’t know if i just didn’t pay attention in class when they taught that section, but i can not get the hang of it. Whenever i’ve tried to lay down lines and follow them, it gets all messed up, so i either wing it and try to get it as close to accurate as possible, or i use tracing paper to draw the outline of buildings/places/etc. I don’t like to do the tracing paper thing too much, cause a part of me feels like it’s cheating. But oh well, i got deadlines to hit and i don’t like to waste time on ethical dilemmas.

Above you can see, that all the major chunks of land have been drawn in. But i found this composition, to be very very flat. There was nothing pulling me in. Yes, it was a functional drawing, but it wasn’t an “OH WOW” drawing, and so that’s where the Road Drone came in. I needed something in the foreground to provide scale, so that it didn’t appear as just some model railroad set. Before i drew that though, i lightly penciled a blob on the pencils of where that foreground element would go, and when it looked right in my mind’s eye, i drew the drone on a separate paper, cut him out, and placed him on the spread.

A few car blobs are penciled in, to show their size in relation to others. But the rest of the cars are drawn on the fly.

Here, you can see that i’ve added another foreground element, this time, a bridge overpass that is in the bottom left corner. When you’ve created a completely fictional world, you need repeated references to familiar things. A human body for instance can not be taller than 6 feet, and an owl can not be larger than a cat. These two things are both near very fictional things, that would give no context for their size otherwise.

Some things have to be fudged though, such as building windows. Their implied sizes is that these are all MEGA structures, the windows would all be dots on the surfaces. Dots are not very interesting.

Once all the elements are finalized more or less, i just began inking and inking and inking.

All of the signage was created as i went. I’d either talk to Douglas about things that we’ve seen in Mega City 1, or i’d just think of something really stupid and draw it in. I’m really proud of the Carl’s Sagan Jr. in particular. I’ll discover that certain compositional elements are needed, here and there, to break up certain areas are to make it feel like it’s buzzing and living and breathing. A satellite tower here, some smoke blowing out there.

Finally, 5 days later, it is all done! Then it is scanned and sent to be colored, by the awesome Ryan Hill!

JUDGE DREDD – Mega City 2 : City of Courts is coming out this January 2014 from IDW. Written by Douglas Wolk, and colored by Ryan Hill

If you loved GAMMA, me and Erick Freitas have brought you the next super excellent comic, through MONKEYBRAIN. 4 different artists, a cover by Paul Chadwick, an amazing logo by Hannah Nance Partlow and everything written by the best super team since Batman & Superman.

“It only took one visit to the Amazing Forest to convince me: the breadth and depth of material here gets me all juiced up for the unlimited potential of the medium. Great stuff, from top to bottom.”- Joe Casey